Customer stories

Today’s post was written by Sebastian Mahler, head of enterprise infrastructure at Linde.

When I joined Linde, I was interested in the challenges inherent in managing a global company. We are one of the world’s largest industrial gases companies—and over the 12 years I’ve worked here, these challenges have only grown more complex. We serve many local markets with numerous regional offices; however, due to an increasingly volatile and connected global economy, we needed to build a more cohesive collaborative organization. We replaced our on-premises Lotus Notes solution with Office 365 cloud-based business productivity services so everyone could work better together, and to drive agility and responsiveness in a digital marketplace.

Our core values—empowering people, innovating for customers, thriving through diversity, and a passion to excel—are all reflected in our decision to move to Microsoft 365 Enterprise. For Linde, empowering people is all about enabling collaboration among colleagues and with partners and customers. Productive teamwork, enabled by easy access to resources, further drives innovation. And empowered employees are inspired and passionate about what they do. In this way, Office 365 strengthens the principles of the “Linde Spirit,” which underlies our corporate culture.

Improving collaboration is crucial for enabling better communication among our global service functions. We’ll be using Skype for Business Online to run management meetings, where we connect people from all over the globe in virtual conferences, thereby accelerating business decisions. And collaboration extends beyond internal teamwork. We need to maintain close relationships with our partners and customers, especially as we are seeing an increase in our business to consumer engagements. One reason we did not choose Google was that that the Office productivity apps we rely on every day, such as Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, form a common language in the business world. Moving to Office 365 makes collaboration with outside parties seamless.

OneDrive for Business is another user-friendly collaborative service that helps us create a seamless workflow within a team, and even between departments. Setting up file shares was a cumbersome part of the collaboration process that Office 365 has essentially eliminated. And when we share spreadsheets or work together on presentations, version control in OneDrive ensures that everyone is using the latest material.

We also enjoy a more secure, mobile way of working, thanks to the security and integration capabilities within Enterprise Mobility + Security, which we deployed alongside Office 365 and Windows 10. Today, it’s simple for me to work from home—I use two-factor authentication to access everything I need. I no longer feel tied to my laptop because I can be productive on multiple devices without worrying about compromising security.

Our migration to cloud-based business tools is only just beginning, as we look forward to adopting services such as Microsoft Planner and Yammer. We’re working with Microsoft Consulting Services and Microsoft FastTrack to help us make the most out of the newest functionality. With their help, we can take advantage of the innovative evergreen approach that Microsoft is delivering across the cloud platform. Their expert guidance has helped us to establish change management communities and build a support network, so as we rollout new functionality, the change management process will be in place to empower our employees to make the best use out of the services. Everyone from plant floor workers to management staff will benefit from Linde’s renewed commitment to our global standard of excellence.

—Sebastian Mahler

Read the case study for more details on the Linde digital transformation.

The post Linde drives digital transformation with Microsoft 365 Enterprise to inspire creative workplace culture appeared first on Office Blogs.

Today’s post was written by Jeff Henderson, executive vice president and CIO of TD Bank Group.

Growing from Canada’s smallest bank to one of North America’s largest in just over 20 years, TD Bank Group (TD) is in the habit of planning for the future. As we continue to expand, we are taking bold steps to make sure that the technology we use grows with us. Transforming technology at TD starts with listening to our employees and creating a “Workplace of the Future” that supports enhanced mobility and collaboration across the organization. We are deploying Microsoft Office 365 to empower employees to be more mobile and productive, so they can continue to provide the legendary customer service that has always set us apart.

Through a digital transformation in the workplace, we are positioning the bank for the future. Gone are the days where banks can expect customers to come to them. Enhancing mobility for our 90,000 employees supports how we accommodate customer expectations for great in-person service and across new digital channels. So, with more mobile employees, such as our mobile mortgage lenders, we are serving customers where it’s most convenient for them. OneDrive for Business Online cloud-based storage provides the biggest impact in terms of improved mobility for our employees because we can access and share files regardless of location or device—plus we save money on storage costs. And employees will be able to edit and share files on the fly because they’ll have access to all the Office 365 services from their mobile devices.

By making Microsoft applications available on mobile phones, and managing and securing them with Microsoft Enterprise Mobility + Security, we can free employees from their desks, so they can be productive anywhere. We’re designing flex-based workspaces with unassigned desks to accommodate this new level of mobile productivity. And just as we’re redesigning our physical spaces, we’re also moving from a traditional methodology to an agile methodology, where we’ll be using Office 365 collaboration services to support a new era of teamwork across functional areas of the organization.

However, from a technology enablement perspective, we can’t deliver anything to our employees that would jeopardize the security and trust that we have built up with our customers over the bank’s assets and information. We are impressed with the integrated, layered approach to cloud security that we see with Microsoft, including products like Customer Lockbox, that provides us with the requisite level of control over access to our content in the TD tenant by Microsoft service personnel.

The interoperability of Microsoft cloud-based services simplifies our job in IT, so we don’t have to spend time integrating point solutions. And the evergreen nature of its cloud services ensures that we remain current on the latest technologies, ultimately reducing risk. Inclusivity is an important aspect of our Workplace of the Future, and we see Microsoft as a leader in the assistive technologies space. Microsoft understands the regulatory compliance environment within the banking industry and has been far and away the most accommodating in working with us to meet our needs as they pertain to our financial regulatory obligations.

In our push to modernize, Office 365 has already revealed impactful cost savings. With 90,000 employees and 110,000 Exchange Online mailboxes, we’ve saved 50 percent in email costs, and expect additional savings to come from consolidating our devices reducing storage costs and limiting the number of third-party applications in our IT portfolio.

As we achieve our vision for a new workplace and corporate culture focused on mobility and agility, we’re positioning ourselves for success in the digital world, ensuring that our products and services continue to resonate with customers well into the future.

—Jeff Henderson

The post TD redefines banking in the digital age with the Microsoft Cloud to empower employees and transform the customer experience appeared first on Office Blogs.